Times Celebrities Went Makeup-Free On The Red Carpet
Don’t get us wrong; we love makeup. We love using it to dress up, dress down, and complete our date-night looks. We’re either ready to do a full face before going on a Target run or could go a week without makeup. Anyway, in any form, we decide to do it, and it’s beautiful. While we adore daring makeup looks, we have a real soft spot for when celebrities go makeup-free in any way they can.
Even today, there’s still such a stigma around going makeup-free, and it’s a tired stigma that needs to be squashed already. Within recent years, people have been showing their all-natural, unedited skin, from headline-making Instagram posts to bare-faced performances. Celebrities are also ready to break this stigma, and we’ve seen quite a few try to show the beauty of a bare face on the red carpet within the past few decades!
Pamela Anderson is the latest celebrity to swear off makeup, opting to embrace her bare skin and embrace getting older with many recent makeup-free appearances. But she’s not the first star to go bare-faced on the red carpet.
From Alicia Keys’ multiple bare-faced appearances to Paris Jackson’s stigma-breaking red carpet look back in 2017, quite a few of our favorite A-listers have gone without makeup on the star-studded carpet — including at the Oscars!
To celebrate this act of showing the love for natural beauty, let’s take a walk down memory lane. Check out which celebrities went makeup-free on the red carpet over the years below:
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Julia Stiles
10 Things I Hate About You star Julia Stiles looked fresh faced and glowing in a no-makeup moment on the red carpet at the premiere of dark comedy movie Coup! on August 1 in New York City.
Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson proved she was committed to the no-makeup life at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party when she looked fresh-faced and glowing without a stitch of makeup.
“I did that for myself,” Anderson said, in February 2024, of her decision to stop wearing makeup. “It wasn’t to make a political statement, I just wanted to have my little weird face sticking out of the top of those great clothes … Why am I playing the game?”
Pamela Anderson (again!)
Pamela Anderson made the ultimate beauty statement at Paris Fashion Week as she attended a series of shows totally makeup-free. In an i-d magazine interview on TikTok, the Love, Pamela author dished about her bold decision when asked about her favorite beauty secret. “These days, don’t do anything,” she said. Wake up. Whatever is happening is just happening. It’s all about self-acceptance.” To emphasize how serious she is about following this mantra, she added, “This is the chapter of life I’m trying to embrace now.” We love to see it
Paris Jackson
Along with her radiant no-makeup selfies on her Instagram page, Paris Jackson turned heads back in 2017 during the People magazine’s “Ones to Watch” red carpet when she went without makeup.
Back in 2017, she did an interview with i-D, where she said she wants people to feel comfortable in their own skin. She said it was “a big reason” she wanted to “change this fashion/beauty stigma,” and that’s why she went without makeup. She added, “I’m not symmetrical, I’m not a size zero, I eat hella burgers and endless amounts of pizza. I can’t fit into a runway sample size of designer clothes, I have scars and stretch marks and acne and I have cellulite. I’m human. Not a dress-up doll. The idea that we all have to fit one idea of beauty is outrageous and ridiculous because ‘perfection’ is just an opinion.”
Ciara
While Ciara is no stranger to rocking a makeup-free selfie or two on social media, but she made headlines everywhere when she arrived bare-faced at the third day of the 2017 MAKERS Conference with her husband Russell Wilson.
Amanda Seyfried
Remember when Amanda Seyfried arrived without makeup at the 15th Annual USTA Opening Night Gala? A couple of years after the event, she divulged to Marie Claire that she’s “not the girl who puts makeup on to go to Target. I’m very comfortable with myself, so I don’t feel a need to cover up or hide anything.”
Shailene Woodley
Shailene Woodley has arrived at a few red carpets without makeup, including at the Red Lights screening at Sunshine Landmark. Along with that, she previously divulged that she rarely wears makeup day-to-day. “I will get my makeup done for appearances and events,” she said to Parade. “Day-to-day, though, I don’t wear makeup at all.”
America Ferrera
Remember when America Ferrera went to the 2013 Outfest Film Festival without makeup? Forever an iconic moment!
Zoe Saldana
Despite rocking some heavy makeup for her sci-fi classics, Zoe Saldana likes to keep it relatively natural. Along with a few radiant no-makeup selfies, we adore this no-makeup moment from the Oakley Women’s Eyewear Launch Party.
Elisabeth Shue
Recently, Elisabeth Shue arrived without makeup at the Tribeca Festival After-Party for The Good Half premiere in early June 2023. At the event, she told Page Six that she’s “not afraid” of aging, and is honestly “curious” about what she’ll look like. “I’m curious to see one day what I was intended to look like as an old lady,” she said. “I want to know what it’s going to be like, and I want to see it, and I’m not afraid.”
Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton has never been afraid to push boundaries with her roles, makeup, and looks. And who could forget when she pushed boundaries with a no-makeup red carpet appearance in 2015?
Ashley Graham
Along with being one of the biggest supermodels today and confidence advocate, Ashley Graham knows how to break beauty stigmas whenever she can — including when she rocked no-makeup at the Fenty Puma by Rihanna show in 2017.
Kim Kardashian
While Kim Kardashian has gone bare-faced for quite a few events and photoshoots now, who could forget when she arrived without makeup for the 2016 Balenciaga show?!
Jennifer Garner
Back in 2016, Jennifer Garner posed for the cameras in a casual look and no makeup for the Telluride Film Festival.
Frances McDormand
When Frances McDormand won the Oscar for best actress in 2018, she decided to take a stance on beauty standards. In 2014, she told The New York Times that she hadn’t “mutated [herself] in any way” and that “We are on red alert when it comes to how we are perceiving ourselves as a species. There’s no desire to be an adult. Adulthood is not a goal. It’s not seen as a gift.”
Alicia Keys
One of the most iconic no-makeup moments in Hollywood was Alicia Keys’ stand against makeup in 2016. She wrote an essay for Lenny Letter, saying, “‘Cause I don’t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing.”
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